Reviews (6)

One of the most suspenseful films
This is one of the most suspenseful films ever made, even more so because it is a true story. I was back in the small town when the two families were preparing the balloon. Some of my friends in Poessneck knew them. The film actually captures the run down town, the anguish of the people living there and the absolute terror of the wall. This is one film everyone who loves freedom should see.

Fantastic!!!
I showed this movie in my American History class during the Cold War Unit. My seventh graders loved it!!!!!!

Excellent!
Wondrful movie of a daring escape from East Germany. True story. Very engrossing. Worth the watch.

Amazing!!!
I loved this movie it was full of excitment, suspence and when I first saw it I couldn't believe how terrific it was to see the famlies escape. I knew the story becaues I had heard if it before but to actually see them go across the boarder at MIDNIGHT and with guards and watchtowers everywere that was truly a amazing. I enjoyed this movie alot and I hope you will to.

A True Story of Courage
I remember when Night Crossing was first released in the theaters. It was a pleasant surprise from Disney Studios. What especially appeals to me about this movie is the fact that in the face of defeat and what seemed to be a hopeless situation, two families refused to give up, and with great determination and courage accomplished the impossible. I never forgot this movie and have long awaited its release on DVD. It is a welcome addition to my library. ... Read more

Reviews (39)

Hysterical gangster spoof--a cult classic!
This is one of those movies which will have you repeating lines over and over to your friends.

Twelve-year-old Johnny Kelly earns an honest living as a paperboy with his prematurely aged mother and his law-engrossed little brother, Tommy. To pay for an urgent surgery for his mother (the first of a seemingly eternal series), Johnny joins the mob and grows to adulthood as a suave ladies' man. But first, rival crime boss Roman Moroni (Richard Dimitri, who murders the English language and his rivals) (Moroni had a lot of rules for his gang. Number one: never park in his private parking space (explosion)) and later, fellow gang member Danny Vermin (Joe Piscopo) will pay any price to stop him . . . not to mention Tommy, who has just graduated from law school and intends to fight crime, not knowing that his brother runs most of it!

Absolutely hysterical. Maureen Stapleton delights as Ma Kelly, and Griffin Dunne turns in an absolutely hysterical straight man role as Tommy Kelly, and is played upon by Johnny (Michael Keaton), Stapleton, and Danny DeVito (as Tommy's crooked boss, District Attorney Burr, who subsequently dies in a beer commercial). Watch for a hysterical performance by Hal Riddle, as an obsequious prison warden, anxious to do anything possible for his celebrity prisoner. (When Johnny asks to have his execution moved up as part of an escape plot, "Fry me tonight!", Riddle replies "Anything for you, Johnny! . . . We'll bump Steinberg. Dangerously will go to the chair tonight.")

The plot doesn't make much sense, but don't worry too much about it, you'll be too busy laughing to worry about such things!

The Only Good Mob Spoof
You would think that mob life would be one of the easiest things for a movie to spoof. However, Johnny Dangerously is the only good one to have been made, and there have been a lot of mob spoofs made. JD is set in the 1920s and focuses on the glamour days of the mafia.

The title role is perfect for Michael Keaton. He plays a suave ladies man that is a more sensitive mob boss. His foil is played by Joe Piscopo in the person of Danny Vermin. Piscopo has the funniest lines in the movie, "It shoots through schools".

Johnny has gotten involved in the mob because of his ailing mother. He needs money to pay her medical bills and for his brother's education. His brother, Tommy, decides that he wants to become a district attorney so that he can take down the mafia. Tommy doesn't know that Johnny Dangerously is really his brother Johnny Kelly. Throw in the fact that Tommy's boss, played by Danny DeVito, is on the mob payroll and you get an altogether hilarious movie.

Some of the funniest scenes in JD feature Richard Dimitri as rival mob boss Roman Moroni completely butchering the English language, "You fargin iceholes". JD is certainly good for more than a few laughs.

Don't give much creedence to Amazon's Editorial Review...
I won't bore everyone with another description of this movie -- please read other positive reviews for that. This review is more of a defense against the Editorial Review written by Tom Keogh. It's a shame that his remarks are given primary visibility to any potential customers looking for a fantastic comedy that, in my and many other opinions, stands the test of time. I recently re-watched this movie, for about the 7th time, as it was being re-run on one of the premium channels. As I was laughing from-my-gut at the same one-liners and scenarios I almost know-by-heart, I realized that this was definitely a film to add to my DVD library. If you are a prospective buyer that has never seen this movie, and you enjoy comedies in the vain of Mel Brooks, Monty Python, and "Amazon Women on the Moon", I can almost guarantee that you will LOVE this film. It's one Michael Keaton's best comedic works -- as good or better than "Night Shift", but in a totally different way -- and I couldn't disagree more with Tom Keogh's remarks...

A must for your comedy movie library!
One of the funniest films you will every see. Keaton is superb, and the rest of the cast ain't bad, either! Even the music soundtrack is right on the mark. I've seen it many times and look forward to many more.

JOHNNY DANGEROUSLY
I half to agree with the other reviewers. This movie was great and very well done. The way to find a good movie is to read the critics and if they don't like the movie, you can bet you'll love it. Everyone in this movie did a great job!! ... Read more

Amazon.com

A breath of fresh air in a stale genre, Zoe Clarke-Williams's canny look at the catty world of college cliques is the smartest dissection of the complex world of class envy, social acceptance, and the seduction of privilege since Heathers. But this drama plays it for tragedy. Local working-class girl Mia Kirshner is transformed from social outcast to campus Cinderella and adopted into the hedonistic party world of a trio of rich fun-loving sorority princesses (Meredith Monroe, Dominique Swain, and Rachel True), and comes out the other end in a drug-induced coma. Confidently directed and elegantly constructed in puzzle-piece flashbacks, this sensitive, sympathetic, smartly made drama is refreshingly free of glib moralizing, the rare young-adult film that twists the usual clichés and leaves its audience with more questions than answers. The DVD also features an audio commentary track by director Zoe Clarke-Williams. --Sean Axmaker ... Read more

Description

This double feature film DVD includes "The Boy in thePlastic Bubble (color 1976)," and "The HarradExperiment(color 1973)." ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Such an Enjoyable film!
I can't remeber when I first saw the Boy in the Plastic Bubble, but it had been a WHILE. The dvd quality isn't fantastic, but it was fine considering it's a TV-movie from 1976. Regardless, I really enjoyed the film and especially the lead performances by Travolta and the lovely Glynnis O'Connor(one of those great 70s actresses who doesn't work as much today, but she's so good in the movies she's in). Sure it's a cheesy story, but I just got so sucked into it. Familiar faces pop up, like that of Robert Reed, Ralph Bellamy and John Friedrich(great in THE WANDERERS). I was listening to an interview with Vincent Gallo recently, and he named this as one of his favorite films(I think that's pretty cool, but whatever he likes is cool because BUFFALO '66 is a near-masterpiece). I am sad to read that the Harrad Experiment(also on this dvd) is cut, but I still thought it was pretty funny-especially Bruno Kirby!

No more censorship please
When I first viewed the film "Harrad Experiment" it was on VHS, the not censored version. This is kind of an underground film, typical of the 70s.

But beware, that version is cut. The film is most notoriously known for its nude scenes of actors now quite known (Don Johnson and Gregory Harrison, among others). That version contains absolutely NO nude scenes. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Before their blockbuster collaboration on Grease, John Travolta and director Randal Kleiser boosted their early careers with this well-acted, sensitively directed television movie. Teenager Tod Lubitch (Travolta) is forced to live in a plastic isolation chamber because he was born with a non-functioning immune system, leaving him vulnerable to even the most common everyday viruses. A unique coming-of-age story, the movie (first telecast in 1976) has become the subject of jokes over the years, but Travolta's comeback has sparked new interest in the star's Welcome Back, Kotter days. --Jeff Shannon ... Read more

Reviews (17)

A Sad but Very Good Movie!
I remember watching The Boy in the Plastic Bubble when it first aired on TV when I was 11 years old and I thought it was a very good movie and John Travolta was terrific as teenager Tod Lubitch who was born with a nonworking immune system that forces him to live in a plastic isloation chamber away from germs which are extremely dangerous for him! The movie also stars Robert Reed and Diana Hyland as Tod's parents and Glynnis O'Connor as the girl who lives next door and they are all pretty good though John Travolta and Glynnis O'Connor got much more screen time. This movie is pretty sad but it's a good movie and I highly recommend it. I taped this movie when it was rerun commercial free on cable but it was taped on a VCR that was old and breaking down so the tape is messed up and I would like to buy the DVD which is unfortunately out of print but I will have to think of ordering a used copy!

PRETTY GOOD FOR A TV MOVIE.
I actually enjoyed "The Boy In The Plastic Bubble" more than I thought I would. After all, it has been the topic of many jokes over the years. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it had some very nice human elements to it. John Travolta did a pretty good job of playing Tod, a teenager with a severe immune deficiency who is forced to live in an enclosed germ free area in his house. He spent a lot of the film acting rather goofy and socially inept. That made a lot of sense though for someone who had limited contact with the general public.

Tod has spent many years watching the teenage girl next door, Gina (Glynnis O'Connor). He is extremely attracted to her but whether she feels the same way about him is questionable. Eventually, Tod is able to go through a series of steps which allow him more and more freedom. He uses this new found freedom to both try and fit in with the other kids as best he can and also woo Gina. There are some touching moments between the two of them although at times it crosses over into being too cut and dry. I would've liked the filmmakers to have made the situation between them a bit more complex.

Robert Reed and Diana Hyland, who play Tod's parents, are given less screen time than one might think. The real story here is about Tod's dreams of one day being "normal" and falling in love with Gina. His relationship with his parents is very secondary. Oddly, Hyland won an Emmy for her performance even though she didn't get a chance to exhibit any real emotion or acting skill.

"The Boy In The Plastic Bubble" doesn't know if it wants to be more of a romance or a medical drama. It ends up doing both fairly well and is worth the buy at such a low price.

A Classic Movie
I first saw this movie when i was a kid, and i loved it because the kids in the movie were around my age. Now as an adult i still love it because John Travolta portrays the character so tenderly. The innocence and "corniness" makes this film truly endearing. i have done an internet search on the real Todd Lubitch, to see if he survived outside his bubble. anyone has any info, please contact me. hollywoodchik@hotmail.com

The importance of this early example.
In this film that predates AIDS, there is an important insight that somehow never carried over into HIV and AIDS discourse. The teenager with the severely compromised immune system was not enclosed to protect us from him, but to protect him from us. Although this move did not portray an infectious agent but a genetic problem, it is an important reminder. In all the paranoid constructions associated with AIDS in America, we seem to have collectively forgotten the simple reality that people who are sick need care. A culture is judged by the way it treats its young, its old, and its sick. Our culture is more concerned with money than real morality, and the so-called religious right is anything but. This film should be revived, even if only for that one insight.

"These are the days of miracle and wonder
And don't cry baby don't cry
Don't cry" -Paul Simon, "The Boy in the Bubble"

Wonderful Movie!!!
To start things off I will watch it over and over. John Travolta is a wonderful actor and portrayed the story of this boy wonderfully. It is very sad how he had to live so isolated in this plastic housing just so he could survive. It was kinda sad how the girl next door took him for granted but finally came to what I think love him. The only thing I didn't like was the ending. I wish they would have said whatever happened to him, or how he's doing or something. What became of him after he came out of the bubble. I think the ending isn't fair since it left me questioning. But like I said I will watch it over and over. : ) ... Read more